Artists across the world reflect on the path of theatres every 27th of march each year in which they raise the importance of theatre arts, their positions in the sphere of entertainment, and the transformations that theatre brings to people’s lives.
In the 60th year celebrations at the Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC), a cross-section of artists gathered to reflect and insight on the best ways to transform theatres
Charles James Ssenkubuge, one of the co-founders of Bakayimbira Drama Actors said that with the nationwide existence of various talents, they urge the government and relevant stakeholders to consider constructing regional theatres for all artists to showcase their talents and performances with reference to the long term closure of theatres due to covid-19 which proved that it’s difficult to have artists travel from all regions to the National theatre.
“Artists are demi-gods who create and it’s through creative that they are able to transform societies, I, therefore, urge that construction of regional theatres will bring out more actors and actresses thus further society transformation,” he said.
He also urged for the revitalization of festivals as a way of spotting out and naturing young talents.
“UNCC should revitalize festivals because it’s through festivals that upcoming young artists come out and I emphasize that it’s through festivals that We, Bakaymbira Drama Actors came out, there is no way artists just bump into the national theatre stage without festivals to spot them out,” he said
Ssenkubuge also urged that theatre events should be performed on weekly days to pave way for effective support of theatre artists citing that weekends are much more competitive with other events.
“The competition from other activities is very stiff, competitions from Grandpre, English premier league, introduction ceremonies among others,” he said.
Legendary actress and playwright Mariam Ndagire, also a legendary artist cited the absence of adequate female artists in the theatre field as a hindrance to effective growth. She is the regard urged fellow women to break the odds and go through theatre as a way of competitively expressing their potential
“Women please we have a lot of stories to tell the world, come let us tell the world what’s going on because the men won’t tell our stories; we have to see that we re-organize the world by also finding solutions to our own stories we tell,” she said.
In the essence of revamping theatre, she said they’re committed to skilling and empowering young talents sighting that it’s the young that will tighten theatre tomorrow in their absence.
Arts and education Consultant Fagil Mandy urged that unity is still a much missing element amongst Ugandan artists which he cited that once the spirit of unity and transparency is preached and promoted, will see theatres to greater heights.
“I must tell you its artists themselves that reject the existing governing perimeters and rules, artists should look forward to unity which also includes re-enforcing their code of conduct because, without unity, the industry remains weak, he said.
Francis Peter Ojede, the UNCC Executive Director said that theatres are critical in the history of the country that must be promoted with celebrations of its people
“With development, you must stalk and we want to talk on how far we have gone with the development of theatres which include the evolution of it,” he said.
Robert Musiitwa, the UNCC Head of Communications said that theatre is critical in the development of every community and a backbone for social development thus urging performing artists to effectively represent well to win more upcoming talents into the field which he said are tomorrow’s pillars of theatre.
“What matters of all is accepting that artists are key in the development of the country and transformation of people and their mindsets, in most cases where technocrats fail, theatre comes in for example in the eighty’s where the ministry of health and government failed on Aids, artists came in, we’ve also seen the same with covid-19,” said Musiitwa
He also said that as UNC, they have already petitioned the government through parliament to offer a go-ahead and assistance in the construction of regional theatres with an aim of spotting talents all over the country.
The past two years did not go smooth for theatre artists across the world as they were not able to showcase their talent to people due to the pandemic induced lockdowns and restrictions
This year’s celebrations climaxed with a theatre play “Gayuguma” Performance by one of the longest-performing artists’ groups Bakayimbira Drama Actors.
